This 2018 photo provided by Tamika Ferguson shows her wife Wayzaro Walton in Hartford, Conn. Walton's supporters called on federal immigration authorities Wednesday, March 27, 2019, to rescind an order deporting Walton to her native England because of criminal convictions. A pardon by Connecticut officials for Walton took effect Wednesday but she remains in federal custody. (Tamika Ferguson via AP) (Tamika Ferguson/AP)

For the second time in recent weeks, Attorney General William Tong went to bat for a Connecticut resident facing deportation because federal immigration authorities have reversed themselves and stopped recognizing the validity of the state’s criminal pardons.

Tong and attorney Erin O’Neil-Baker on Tuesday appeared before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, asking a panel of three justices to delay any deportation of Wayzaro Walton, 35, of Hartford, until she exhausts all her rights to argue the total pardon she received for larcenies she committed years ago cancels any deportation effort.

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If the court doesn’t stay the deportation, Walton can be sent back to her native England immediately, which would split apart her family, O’Neil-Baker said.

The Department of Justice argued before the court Tuesday that the justices lack the power and authority to intervene in a deportation matter.

Walton has been a Connecticut resident since she was 3, has a green card and was a chef at a local hotel. Her 16-year-old daughter attends Conard High School in West Hartford. Her wife, Tamika Ferguson, joined Tong and Baker-O’Neil in court. Walton is being held in an immigration detention center in Boston.

Ferguson and the couple’s daughter visited Walton last week at the detention center. It was Walton’s birthday.

“She’d hoped she would be home with us by now,” said Ferguson. “This has been especially hard on our daughter.”

Tong said pardons in 49 other states are recognized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as triggering a deportation waiver. For 60 years, Connecticut’s pardon process — a board appointed by the governor approves pardons — was considered valid as well.

In fact, Solicitor General Clare Kindall, who works in Tong’s office, cited a 2002 case in a letter to the Second Circuit in which the Bureau of Immigration Appeals said the state’s pardon process was sufficient to cancel a deportation.

“We find that in this instance, the Board of Pardons is the supreme pardoning power for the state of Connecticut and, as such, we will recognize its pardon as effective for the purposes of [the deportation waiver],” the appeals board wrote. “As the respondent has been pardoned absolutely and unconditionally for his crimes, he is no longer removable under [the Immigration and Nationality Act.]”

Nothing has changed in the state’s pardon process, but two Connecticut residents, Walton and Jamaican-born Richard Marvin Thompson, of Bridgeport, who has lived here legally for more than 20 years, face the prospect of immediate deportation despite being granted full pardons. Thompson received a full pardon for an assault that occurred 17 years ago, when he was 18.

Tong, who took office in January, has been a critic of President Donald Trump’s policies on health care, civil rights, women’s rights, the environment, state sovereignty and gun control. He has joined coalitions of states that have filed legal challenges to the Trump administration on many different fronts.

He was asked again on Tuesday, following his court argument, if he feels the Trump Administration is singling out Connecticut for disparate treatment, given that pardons in other states are being recognized.

“I sure hope not,” Tong said in a conference call with reporters. “What I do think is that it’s arbitrary. The Board of Immigration Appeals has for 60 years recognized Connecticut pardons. … The federal government has done a complete reversal.”